Colossians 4:1. The subject concluded 1. _Masters_ Cp. Ephesians 6:9. _give unto_ PROVIDE FOR. The Greek verb suggests deliberate care. _that which is … equal_ In the Greek, EQUALITY, EQUITY. The word in the classics often means "equality" in the political sense, as against arbitrary privilege; an... [ Continue Reading ]
Prayer: Intercourse with non-Christians 2. _Continue in prayer_ PERSEVERE AT PRAYER. Cp. Ephesians 6:18, where the like precept is prefaced by the elaborated thought of the spiritual combat and armour. Cp. for the phrase Romans 12:12. Here as there he returns from the details of life to the great s... [ Continue Reading ]
_praying also for us_ Cp. Romans 15:30; Eph 6:19; 1 Thessalonians 5:25; 2 Thessalonians 3:1; Hebrews 13:18. He wisely covets for his apostolic work, and the work of his friends, the prayers of the obscurest watchful believer. _open … a door of utterance_ Lit., A DOOR OF THE WORD of the Gospel, i.e.,... [ Continue Reading ]
_That I may make it manifest_ Cp. Ephesians 6:20. The request for prayer for opportunity glides into that for prayer for grace to use it. " _Make manifest_" _:_the word is the same as that in e.g. 2 Corinthians 4:10-11. It is used only here by St Paul in just this connexion, and here probably means... [ Continue Reading ]
_Walk_ See above, on Colossians 1:10. _in wisdom_ In the "sanctified good sense" of those who would avoid all needless repulsion of word or manner, and seize all good occasion. Such practical wisdom was quite another thing than the would-be philosophy which he repudiates in e.g. 1 Corinthians 1:2.... [ Continue Reading ]
_your speech_ TALKING, DISCOURSE. The precept here may well be applied to the Christian's _whole_use of the tongue (see Ephesians 4:29). But the context gives it a special reference, surely, to his _discourse about the Gospel with those "without_." _alway_ Observe the characteristic absoluteness of... [ Continue Reading ]
Personal Information 7. _All my state_ Rather more lit., MY CIRCUMSTANCES GENERALLY. The same phrase occurs Philippians 1:12. Latin Versions, _Quœ circa me sunt omnia_. _Tychicus_ Cp. Ephesians 6:21; and our note there. Tychicus is named also Acts 20:4; 2 Timothy 4:12; Titus 3:12. He appears to hav... [ Continue Reading ]
_I have sent_ Greek, "_I sent_." But the English is true to our idiom. He means that the letter and Tychicus are sent together; the aorist, the "epistolary past" of Greek, must be rendered as a perfect in English to convey this thought. So Ephesians 6:22, where see our note. _for the same purpose_... [ Continue Reading ]
_Onesimus_ On his name and story see below, on Philemon 1:10, and _Introd_. to the Ep. to Philemon, ch. 3. _a faithful and beloved brother_ Lit., and better, THE, &c. See above on Colossians 4:7. This rescued slave is raised, in Christ, to a brother's place beside Tychicus, the Colossians, and Paul... [ Continue Reading ]
Salutations 10. _Aristarchus my fellow-prisoner_ MY FELLOW-CAPTIVE (Latin Versions, _concaptivus_), fellow-prisoner- _of-war_. So Epaphras is called, Philemon 1:23 (where see note). And so Andronicus and Junias, Romans 16:7. The word indicates either that Aristarchus was, or had been, in prison wit... [ Continue Reading ]
_And Jesus_ The Grecized form of _Jehoshua_(later, _Jêshua_), "_Jehovah's Help_"; a very common Jewish proper name. In the N.T., besides the countless places where it is the name of our Blessed Lord, and this place, it occurs Acts 7:45; Hebrews 4:8; (of Joshua); and (according to well-supported read... [ Continue Reading ]
_Epaphras_ Cp. Colossians 1:7, and note. _who is one of you_ Cp. Colossians 4:9, and note. _a servant of Christ_ A designation true of all Christians; see Ephesians 6:6. Here it seems to denote a man in whom the holy "bondservice" was markedly illustrated; perhaps specially in his pastoral or miss... [ Continue Reading ]
_zeal_ LABOUR, R.V. (so Latin Versions; Wyclif, "_traveil_"), adopting a somewhat better supported reading, of which that represented in A.V. is probably a transcriber's _explanation_. _Laodicea_ See on Colossians 2:1; and _Introd_. p. 13. _Hierapolis_ The third mission-station in the valley of th... [ Continue Reading ]
_Luke Loucas_, LUCAS; _Lucanus_abbreviated. It is interesting to find the Second and Third Evangelists (see Colossians 4:8) in one small group around St Paul here. Cp. Philemon 1:24; 2 Timothy 4:11. Lucas had accompanied St Paul to Rome; so the "_we_" "_us_" &c., of Acts 27:28, implies. He is not na... [ Continue Reading ]
Laodicea; Archippus 15. _Salute … Laodicea_ The places were only twelve miles apart. _Nymphas_ A Laodicean; his name in full was, probably, Nymphodorus. See Lightfoot's full note here, on name-contractions in - _as_. In some Greek mss. this name is accented as if it were _Nympha_, a feminine name,... [ Continue Reading ]
this _epistle_ Lit., THE EPISTLE; as Rom 16:22; 2 Thessalonians 3:14. "_The letter now before you_." _is read_ I.e., SHALL HAVE BEEN READ. _in the church of the Laodiceans_ Hierapolis is not mentioned in this charge. Was Laodicea already beginning to grow "_lukewarm_" (Revelation 3:15) as the sist... [ Continue Reading ]
_say to Archippus_ Probably the son of Philemon (cp. Philemon 1:2, and notes, and Lightfoot, _Colossians_&c., pp. 374, 5). He was apparently an ordained minister in the mission-church, either at Colossæ or (less probably, surely; see on Philemon 1:2) at Laodicea. St Paul, perhaps, had misgivings abo... [ Continue Reading ]
Farewell 18. _The salutation by the hand of me Paul_ Here he takes the pen from the amanuensis (see Romans 16:22), and writes the final words in autograph. In 2 Thessalonians 3:17 (" _so_I write") this is evidently done to warrant the authenticity of the letter. And see another reason, Philemon 1:19... [ Continue Reading ]